Pluck a String, Hear it Vibrate
by TheMixMaster
Summary: Keep in mind the fourth of July, the day that he fell wounded and she first died. And thus began the dreams and vibrations that led to destined love. HisanaxByakuya
1. Chapter 1

Part 1 Chapter 2: My dream

My name is Akira Suchi. I am the Head Servant of Lord Byakuya's house, the Kuchiki clan. This is my dream, no, was my dream, and to be even more accurate, this was not my dream, but was my nightmare. My nightmare of not my past, but of a past. I don't know whose. I simply know two things: that I am not in this dream, and that this dream is true, that it happened. Don't ask me how I know the latter; it is pure instinct. I am writing this down, by the way, so that I can look back at this if there is ever a time that calls for me to come back to this vivid sleep induced vision. Here is what happened, through the eyes of the owner of this incident-

_I felt nothing but confusion as I walked down something that was not even worthy of being called a street. No, a better term would be a path, or, if you're wishing to push the limits of politeness to an extreme, a quaint lane that lay between two tightly fitted rows of innumerable, indistinguishable cottage sized homes, or, for use of a better term, shacks. I tried to recall the name of this place, the name that the man in black and white had told me when I'd first arrived from… I couldn't truly recall where. Matter of fact, I couldn't really recall anything at moment save for a handful of seemingly meaningless memories. A warm smile, a sunny day, a picnic… happy things. _

_These memories, although probably truly meaningless, were precious to me, as they were one of the few things I had. Those memories, the clothes on my back, and the girl, the sweet little baby girl in my arms with shocking black hair and rosy cheeks whose name and place in my life I could not truly remember but rather could recall by instinct, were all that I had. I had to peek through the swaddled cloth that protected the girl, whom I remembered as my sister, to see her face. I had to remember her, had to be sure that she was real. Although I had been in this place for no more than two days, I could safely say that she was now the sole joy in my life, the one bit of hope in the eternal forest that was to be my grave. …Perhaps that last metaphor was a bit melodramatic. Yes, while this place wasn't exactly a paradise, to say that it would be my grave was probably going a bit over the top._

_I continued walking down the path. I wasn't really sure as to where I was headed, but I did know what I was looking for; permanent shelter, a way to make some money, _somebody_ to fully explain to me where I was and why I couldn't remember anything from my apparent past. I say 'apparent' because I wasn't even all that sure that I even had a past; perhaps those short, blithe memories were just some thing that my mind had come up with all on its own. _

_I reassured my grip on my baby sister; being a baby, she was perfectly light, but even her measly weight managed to tire out my arms as I carried her. While shaking my head, as though trying to mentally nock away the strain from my limbs, I noticed a large rust brown, flaky blotch on one of the many shacks. It didn't look natural, like it had appeared over time. Rather, it seemed as if it had been painted on there by some person. As I walked past it, I noticed a horrible stench radiating off of from its more lightly shaded, apparently newer center. _It smells like something died, _I thought to myself. _Perfectly horrid. _I quickly walked past it, not wanting to take in the smell any longer. _

_I suddenly heard a terrified scream that seemed to shriek through the air like a missile.. I jumped, unprepared for the clamor, and almost dropped my sister. My sister, Rukia… I quickly re-ensured my grip on her. The cry had come from a shack with thick vines growing up its walls, located almost directly to my right, nearly perfectly beside me. Instinct told me that I ought to heed the scream as a warning, and to hurry on my way, but another feeling called curiosity quickly tossed aside my instincts and took over. The end result of this brief clash of thought and gut feeling had me slowly stooping beside the half draped window to the house and peeping inside to see whom had screamed, and for what had caused it. The sight…_

_The very sight of the scene was hideous, disturbing, gory, wrong, …agonizingly sad to look at. Inside lay the bodies of two young teenage girls, sprawled on the floor like rags. Blood ran down through their faces, their clothing, their bodies. One of the girls' mouths was still open, emitting a dead scream. I couldn't help but assume that that girl was the one I had heard. _

_While I was feeling terribly sorry for these two girls, I still had the safety of my sister and I in mind. These girls had been murdered, and within the last couple of seconds judging from how long it had been since I'd heard the screaming. That much was obvious. I couldn't see their killer through the window, so he had to be somewhere else, still very close by .That was definitely not good thing. This person, whoever they may be, still on the loose within the area._

_Suddenly that rusty splotch on the wall had new meaning. God knew whom this murderer's next victim would be. It could be the next person I came across, or maybe some stranger that I was destined to never meet… or perhaps myself. Or, God forbid, my sister. I shuddered and clutched Rukia closer to my chest. I swear, I will never leave this child out of my sight. _

_I took one last glance through the window. The two girls hadn't moved, but had I really expected there to be any chance that they'd survived? But there was something slightly different about the whole scene. There was another pair of eyes there. Deep set, black eyes belonging to a dark silhouette standing a little ways away from the bodies of the dead girls.. Murderous eyes; the eyes of a killer. Those eyes bored into the core of my being and told me one thing and one thing only; you're next._

_I held back a scream and turned and ran back through the direction I'd been coming from. I ran and ran, with no intention of stopping. Only one thing passed through my head as I streaked down through the God forsaken streets. I recalled it as being the thing that the man in black and white had said to me when I'd first arrived, the thing that I'd been trying to remember earlier : "_Welcome to District 69. Watch your step. It tends to get rough around here."

_Thanks for telling me._

End of the first dream journal entry.


	2. Chapter 2

Part 1 Chapter 3-

I closed the small journal that I had retrieved from my pocket upon awaking from that strange dream. I don't know what had come over me that led me to recording that… whatever it had been. I could still recall the face of the girl whose experience that I had just shared. Her face had been fairly pale, like mine, and she'd had terrific pair of shiny dark eyes, a nice looking girl. Actually, you couldn't really call her a girl; she had looked more like a young adult, around Master's age. A rather short young adult at that, but a young adult none the less.

I rubbed my eyes, still groggy from my nap. Speaking of Master, he hadn't really moved much; his strong right hand which had been lying atop his stomach before I'd fallen asleep was now placed beside his sharply angled face. Despite the fact that he was still sweating as a result of his fever, he really did look comfortable in that lush, soft bed of his, surrounded by luxury. The immense contrast of his surroundings to that of my dream would've startled me if I hadn't, years ago, lived in similar surroundings as to what that girl was now going to have to adjust to. I really felt quite sorry for her, and not for just for the terrible sight that she'd witnessed. I'd had similar vague memories as to what she was having; they hadn't been of the exact same things of course, but still, the things that they had been about could be classified in a similar category as hers. When she found out the truth about them, that they were really repercussions of her life in the world of the living, I wondered how she'd react. People reacted in all sorts of different, interesting ways when they learned that wonderful bit of news. For instance, when I was beheld to that wonderful fact, I had simply walked up to a wall so that I could begin to bang my head against it in frustration. To this day, I'm positive that I received permanent brain damage from that incident.

I was also curious as to how this girl had ended up in the Rukongai with her biological sister. Had that happened just by chance? Had they died together? I knew that if people committed group suicide that they would often times end up here in this Land of the Dead together, but I wasn't aware of any other sort of case where people arrived here in groups. Ah well. I'd have to look into it.

And lastly, I wanted to know how this dream came upon me. Yes, I was undoubtedly positive that this dream had happened, that it had been a reality, that the girl that I had followed was real, as well as her baby sister. Yes, I know that this all sounds unlikely and that it's enormously hard to believe, as I wouldn't of believed it if somebody had related this to myself, but you have to understand; I had more than a gut feeling that I had witnessed and not just imagined. I didn't just believe it either. I felt it, really and deeply felt that it had all happened, like how I just knew that I had bones and muscles, despite that I've never really been able to see them for myself, save for one incident. Don't get me wrong; I'm not the type to believe things on a total a whim and as a result I did have notable bit of doubt about all of this, but I was having such a strong feeling...

But really. Why was I seeing this stuff? (assuming that it was real) Was I really that special or something? Oh well. I was seeing these things, and that was that. Like my question about how the girl and Rukia had ended up in the Rukongai together, I'd have to look into it later.

I sighed to myself. "Well, this certainly makes my day more interesting," I started, speaking to myself. I continued talking, just to entertain my conscience. "You know, Lord Byakuya," I said, despite the fact that he was still asleep, "this is one of those moments where I really wish that I were female. A female at least would find it entertaining, and perhaps even arousing, to watch you sleep. I on the other hand, being both male and straight, find it to be rather boring, just sitting here, staring at you as you snore on, occasionally mumbling some incomprehensible word in your sleep. Well, not totally incomprehensible. I believe that I heard you mention something about a 'deranged cow' and a 'flying monkey' . Hmm… yes, a better word to describe your sleep talking would be 'incoherent'. No offense intended of course." If Lord Byakuya were actually awake and just feigning sleep, I wouldn't of been worried that he'd over heard what I'd just said. I teased him like this quite often, and he didn't really mind. He would just sit there and ignore it. The biggest reaction I would get would be a small eye roll.

The reason why he tolerated me saying such things was because (a) he knew that it was all said in good humor, and (b) despite him being my Master and I being his servant (well, his Head Servant, but still..) we were really good friends. Actually, it was probably because of our positions in each other's lives, he my employer, I his employee, that we had developed such a good friendship. I cared for him, gave him advice, served him, occasionally gave him a shoulder to cry on (like when his father died), and (although some may find this hard to believe) sometimes even got him to laugh. Now you're probably saying 'Well, you've done all of this for him, now what has he done for you?' Well, I find that just him being my friend is a wonderful thing to receive in return for all of my services to him as a pal. Yeah, that sounds awfully sappy I know, but really. Think about it. My Lord Byakuya is the Lieutenant of the Sixth Company, the next heir to the head of the Kuchiki Clan, is incredibly strong, and also popular with the ladies. If that doesn't make him a cool person to be friends with, then I don't know who is. Oh, and there's also the fact that he offered me a new life, and saved me from the very clutches of evil and that as a result I owe him my eternal gratitude, but we wont go into that.

I know this is kinda random, but if anybody cares, I was still hungry. Really, really hungry.

Uh… that last comment was the result of my boredom.

Master shifted, rolling onto his wounded arm. He groaned, his arm apparently hurting from being crushed by his body's weight.

I stood up and walked over to Master bed, intending to roll him back over.

I grabbed hold of his shoulder to push him back. As I did so, I couldn't help but to notice how muscular his shoulder and upper arms were underneath his clothing. Once again, I'm perfectly straight, but this was an observation that I couldn't help but to take notice of. A pang of jealousy reared up as took note of this, and I couldn't help but to think _Why did this man steal my dream body from me?_

One of Master's elaborate double doors were opened as I finished rolling him back onto his spine. One of my younger servant-girls came in. (I love being able to call the other servants that, and not just 'Master's Servants', but rather 'My servants'.) She walked in only a few steps past the door way and stopped. Her face turned bright red when she set her eyes upon her sleeping master. Jeez, it seemed to me that every girl in the universe became immediately entranced by Lord Byakuya's form when seeing him. I couldn't help but figure that he was all the more attractive to them while he was asleep. I suppose that they thought him to look cute or something while in such a state. I wouldn't know. I'm not a girl.

I straightened up from my Lords side, and turned towards the girl. "What is it, Aimi?" Aimi was the name of the servant-girl.

"Ah..." the poor thing seemed to be a loss for words as a result from the sight of Lord Byakuya. I could picture her thought process. _Oh, jeez, my master is sleeping. ..he looks so hot, oh me oh my blah blah blah._ I wasn't sure whether to be intrigued or disgusted by the idea of such thoughts. I decided to come to the middle and tease her a little.

I smiled and raised my eyebrows, hoping to attain a look of knowing-ness. "Give it up Aimi. He's already taken."

She looked up at me with the expression of someone who'd been caught doing something naughty. Her already flushed face deepened in color. "Oh…" She paused awkwardly for a moment, then shook her head, apparently realizing all of the things that that 'oh' could lead one to assume about her previous thoughts, before continuing. Her face remained a deep, cherry red. "Oh, Master Kuchiki has sent me to ask you, Mr. Akira, how his son, Master Byakuya, is doing." There were two masters in this household; Master Byakuya and Master Kuchiki. Master Kuchiki, his full name being Hiroshi Kuchiki, was both Byakuya's father and the head of the Kuchiki Clan. Everybody else was either a Mister, a Miss, a Sir, a Ma'am, a Lord, or a Lady.

I answered her, still smiling. "You can tell Master Kuchiki that his kiddo is doing just great, and that his fever broke just a few minutes ago." Putting our ages into human years, I was about twenty-eight (not only was I Head Servant, but I was also a young Head Servant) and Lord Byakuya was nineteen. Therefore, being almost a decade older than him, I really wasn't Lord Byakuya's peer, so I could call him a 'kiddo', although it admittedly wasn't the most formal thing to call him. But coming from me, I knew that Byakuya wouldn't really care if he knew that I'd called him that. His father might though, but I knew that Aimi wouldn't mention that I'd called him that. She knew of the friendship that lay between our Master and I, and that I often called him such things when he and I were joking around. And even if Lord Byakuya and I weren't pals, Aimi and I got along well, so I knew that she wouldn't rat on me.

Aimi bowed to me, her straight black hair briefly brushing by her face, which, by the way, was still bright pink. "As you say, Mr. Akira, sir." I saw her take one last glance at her master before turning around and leaving, shutting the door behind her. Despite the fact that she shut it softly, the heavy wood of the door still made an annoying loud _clang_ as it swung into place.

"I'm already taken? Where in the world did you get that from, Akira?"

"Ah," said I, smiling as I turned back towards my Master. "you're awake."

Lord Byakuya raised his dark eyebrows at me. He was now shifted from a lying position to one where he was sitting up. "Evidently." He looked back towards the double doors where Aimi just left. "She was blushing, wasn't she."

"Yes. She was. Why do you ask? Interested, are you? She's a bit young, but I suppose that I could possibly get something arranged."

Lord Byakuya bored his eyes into mine. "You say anything of the sort to her, you wont live to see the next sun rise."

I couldn't help but to laugh. "If I said anything of the sort to her, and I said it seriously enough, she'd be the one who'd end up dead. She'd suddenly die of a mysterious heart attack, brought upon her by an unknown source of extreme nervousness and excitement."

He rolled his eyes. "I swear Akira, you never change. So," he continued, "how exactly did I end up in bed rest?"

Oh wow. He didn't remember. This was going to be good.

I figured that it would be best to speed talk. I wanted to get this out and over with. "YoupassedoutbecauseyourefusedtogetthatdeepwoundcheckedoutyouknowtheoneyougotfromthatmissionanywhoyoupassedoutwhichscaredmenearlytodeathsoIwentuptothefourthcompanybarrackstogetyoucheckedoutbuttheonlypersonthereatthetimewasCaptainUnohanasoshecametocheckyououtandsaidthatshecouldn'th-ealtheinfectioncausedbythewound…

The expression on his face was terrible. "You got Captain Unohana to come up here?" His voice was dry with… I hoped it wasn't, but it sounded like anger. Why would he be angry? Then again, I supposed that I couldn't be surprised.

Ah, wait a minute. Upon further inspection of his facial expressions, I discovered that it actaully wasn't anger. It was horror. Now that, for him, made sense.

I continued with my speed talking. "andthenshesaidthatyou'dhavetowaitforittohealandthatyou'dprobablybeoffthejodforgiveortakeamonthson-owyou'rehereandawake and we're all just so happy to see that you're okay." I slowed down towards the end.

My Master sighed and rubbed his face. "One of those days, Akira, I swear…"

I shrugged. "I did what I had to do. If anybody other than Captain Unohana had been up there at the time, believe me, I would've brought them."

Lord Byakuya look up at me sighed, and rubbed his face again. "I realize that, Akira, but…" he shook his a head. "A month off of duty? Is there anyway around that? Anyway that doesn't include eight hours of paper work everyday?"

I scratched my elbow. "I wouldn't know. Maybe your captain will let you do some lesser missions until you get the full use of your arm back."

Lord Byakuya looked back up at me. "I suppose I will. That's a better idea than anything I can think of, assuming that Captain really wont let me go back to normal missions until I heal completely."

One of the double doors opened again, and for the second time, Aimi came walking in. She blinked in surprise to see that her Master was now awake and sitting up. The familiar shade of pink returned to her cheeks as she delivered her message. "Mr. Goro was wondering if Mr. Akira knew where Ms. Takako is." Goro and Takako were two of my other servants. Both worked in the Kuchiki Manor's massive garden.

I scratched my chin as thought of where they might be. I was noticing myself scratching myself quite a lot. As I scratched, I couldn't help notice that my clean, shaven face was beginning to go away as noticeable traces of black stubble began to pop up again. Why hadn't I been able to shave? Oh yeah. Because Lord Kuchiki decided to nap for a couple days straight. "Well, its Takako's day off. I don't know where she might be. Why does Goro need her?"

"He needs help weeding a certain area of the garden. He says that it's a two man job, sir."

I nodded. "Ah, I see." I continued to scratch my stubbly chin. "Well, in that case, go get Chiyoko to help him. She's arranging some books in the library, but that can wait."

"As you say sir." Aimi bowed, and then turned to leave.

"Oh, wait a minute, Aimi." I called to her.

She turned back around at me. The pink still hadn't faded from her cheeks. "Yes?"

Grinning, I began, "I checked with Lord Byakuya here, and according to him, he's actually single! Which would you like? I believe that he's free tomorrow, Wednesday, and Thursday…"

"Akira." A dangerous voice said from behind me. "One more word Akira, and my Senbon Zakura will allowed to feast."

Still grinning, I waved for Aimi to leave. She did so, blushing so brightly that I was nearly blinded by the sight of it.


	3. Chapter 3

It's been at least four hours now, but my cheeks still feel as hot as an active volcano!

Hello! My name is Aimi Irazaki. I'm a servant working for the great Kuchiki Clan, under the control of Head Servant Akira Suchi. Mr. Akira is a great boss, but he likes teasing me. I really don't know why. I talked to my best friend, Chiyoko, -another servant for the Kuchiki Clan- about it, and she said that it's probably because I'm just so cute and vulnerable looking, especially with the sweet little pink bow that I always wear at the very back of my hair. And also, she went on to say, it's also because of the cheerful, blithe air that's always floating around you. Honey, you're the text book recipe for attracting loveable teasing!

Is that true? Is that why Mr. Akira teases me? It's certainly a much better answer than anything my tiny little brain can come up with.

Please don't misunderstand me; I don't necessarily dislike Mr. Akira joking with me. Actually, I think it's really kind of fun when he does. It's just that I cant help but to ponder over why he does it.

And so, it's been four hours. Four hours since I first left Master Kuchiki's room, blushing brighter than the sun. I'm not one to think about boys to much. I'm only one hundred and two, which, translated to human years, is about fourteen years old. I really shouldn't be thinking about guys and all of that fiddle-doodle quite yet, and I usually don't. Master Kuchiki, you see, is the grand exception.

Exactly what about him makes my cheeks burst in a bundle of roses and my heart jump into the worlds speediest tap- dance routine is a mystery to me. There's just something about him, so graceful, so very much unlike other men.

I discussed this subject with Chiyoko as well. Amazingly, I discovered that Chiyoko isn't at all infatuated with Lord Byakuya. She's probably just about the only lady on the planet whose heart doesn't go hippity-hop whenever he comes within a hundred-mile radius of her. She says that this is because she was married to Lord Byakuya in some other life, and has therefore already had more than enough of him, both in bed and out. She's joking of course, because nobody can truly recall any of their past lives. Some people get flickers of memories, but never enough to make sense of them.

As of now, I'm currently working in the library. The Kuchiki library isn't nearly as big as the Central Library, but it's still impressive. Last time I'd heard, it contains at least twelve thousand volumes and two hundred forty scrolls. The floors are blanketed with soft carpeting with a soothing shade of white, and against the walls there are several plush couches, perfect for both sitting back and reading on, or, if you just cant settle down anywhere else, for taking a nice, comfortable nap. And so, it was on one of these couches that I found Head Servant Akira Suchi snoring away with volume on his chest that was rising and falling as he inhaled and exhaled. I wasn't worried about him not working; after all, he'd stayed up about three days straight keeping an eye on Master Byakuya. He must have been exhausted. What did worry me was the way his eye's twitched, as did his hands, the way he kept moaning.

_He must be having a bad dream. _I thought. _Poor thing. _

He suddenly called out in such a loud tone that I thought for a moment that he'd awoken. I jumped, startled.

"Run!" he cried. "Hisana, get out of there! Away from that murderer! Hisana!"

It would have been sad if it weren't really just so… sad. As in pathetic. He was waving his arms around as though trying to swat a fly.

I just had to smile. That was my master, the wonderful eccentric. I turned back towards the book shelf behind me to dust off a few volumes.

And then something slammed into my head, nearly knocking me the floor.

If I had fallen, it really wouldn't of mattered, taking into consideration how thick and soft the carpeting was. It would have been like plummeting down onto a luxurious mattress. It disturbed me, never the less, to come across the discovery that someone would dislike me so much as to throw objects towards my forehead. Who was this ill wishing fiend, this horrible, horrible person, this thrower of objects? This person, whom wished me dead! I was short, but I was willing to bet a bucket load of the best crab meat out there that I could take my new nemesis. They wouldn't know what hit them, when I discovered the horrid felon. I'd throw something at them a million times worse than…

I bent down to pick up the thrown projectile, which was probably tainted with the throwers evil. The object was a book, a book entitled _Dreams: How to interpret them, and what they mean, _by Dr. Louis Flow.

Whoa… wait a darned minute there. Hadn't there been a book lying on Head Servant Akira Suchi's chest? More specifically, hadn't this novel been that book? Looking up I noticed that the thick volume was no longer lying atop Mr. Akira. I also noticed that he was still asleep, apparently still plagued by the same nasty dream.

His arms were moving back and forth over his head, his wrists forward and back. It almost looked like he was trying to throw something.

I glanced down at the book, and back at sleeping Mr. Akira. Down and up. Up and down.

A new, possible conclusion came to mind: the book had not been thrown by some person wishing me my ultimate doom. It had been thrown by my funny boss in his sleep.

Chiyoko always told me that I was too quick to come to conclusions. In despair, I realized that this only further proved her assessment.

Sighing, shaking my head at myself, I rubbed my head, picked up the book, and then placed it softly on a table sitting only a few feet away from Head Servant Akira's couch. I wasn't about to risk getting slammed with another hard- cover.

Oh goodness me. If I'd known what Mr. Akira had been witnessing in his sleep, I would of awoken him up right then and there, just to spare him the sight. Because, as he told me much later, after most of the events destined to be written in this retelling, he really would of enjoyed missing the sight of matching Ms. Hisana and her poor sister running through the streets with a killer at their tail.


	4. Chapter 4

Part 1: A Hidden Bit of Foreshadowing. Chapter one- The Introduction

Lord Byakuya tossed in his sleep, murmuring under his breath with every other jolty movement. His brow appeared sweaty, his face red from fever. Every now and again his closed eyes would try to squeeze tighter together, as though they were oranges and one was trying to get the juice out of them. …alright, I do suppose that that is an odd metaphor, but you have to understand me; I was dead hungry. Food was one of the many thoughts that were circling around in my head at the moment. I hadn't eaten in… well lets see here… dear me, I'd lost track of the hours it'd been since I'd last stuffed an edible substance of any sort into my mouth. Not that I was really caring about that too much at the moment; it was simply something that I was painfully aware of.

No, my main concern was my master, my master whom was lying before me on a low bed at moment, sick from an infection caused by a rather deep battle wound, the type that you could tell by just looking at would at the very least would result in a small scar, if not an infection or something worse. I couldn't count the number of times I'd warned him to get the cut checked out. I'd insist, at the beginning and end of every day, and sometimes during the times between the alpha and omega hours for about two weeks straight that he go to a member, any member of Fourth Company, that could give the injury a good assessment and a fairly accurate judgment on how dangerous it was. It probably wouldn't have taken more than twenty minutes at most to do, and besides, the grand Kuchiki Manor was only a short walk away from the Fourth Company barracks. I didn't see what was so difficult about it. But then again, my master is not some person willing to listen to wise directions coming from another. My master is the proud and almost totally self-reliant Kuchiki Byakuya. He wasn't willing to appear weak. No, he was going to be a man and tough it out. Even when the wound began to turn all sorts of interesting colors that practically spelled out unhealthy, he refused to get it looked at. And then, when the arm he gotten cut on began to swell up to such an extent that it became near impossible for him to move it, he still kept to his stubborn manner and continued to give excuses when I asked him to go to Fourth Company. …Alright, not to be insulting to my own gender, and I'm not meaning to tear my master down either, because he really is truly a good person whom I care about dearly, but really. Fact of the matter is that most of us men are stupid when it comes to injuries. We have to tough it out, look all manly and crap. And although my master is richer than most, although he holds a higher place in society than most, and although has mastered the laws of etiquette better than most, he is still subject to the laws of nature like all the rest of us, and the laws of nature say that all men are complete idiots when it comes to injuries. Except for me. I'm just afraid of the doctor. So…case closed.

The infection that had started the site of his injury had spread throughout his arm, and then had progressed throughout his body. Just the other day, as he was leaving the manor, the infection overcame Lord Byakuya's consciousness, and he passed out. Luckily, one of my master's other servants, or as my more egocentric side would like to put it, one of my underlings, as I'm the Head Servant and therefore the others are under my control to an extent, was at the site and managed to catch our master as he'd toppled forwards, probably preventing a very much unneeded concussion in the process.

In a sense, Lord Byakuya's falling unconscious was a blessing in disguise, as it allowed me to run off and fetch a member of Fourth Company without any "I don't need treatment" 's and even fewer "I'm perfectly fine but I appreciate your concerns" 's. I was fortunate enough to find Captain Unohana available, and asked her to come and look at my master. She looked plenty worried after I'd described his state, and she hurried off towards the manor. I followed behind her. Although it would've been more courteous of me to lead the lady towards the house rather than have her lead me, I was so focused with keeping up with Captain Unohana's rocket fast speed walking (and yes, in case you're wondering she has won several trophies focused around the speed of ones walking pace) that the thought never crossed my mind. A stray thought that did cross my mind though was about how much trouble I'd be in with Lord Byakuya when he found out that I'd not only had an upper rank of Fourth Company check him out, but had the Captain of Fourth Company herself come when he'd been so set against seeing even a lower ranked person look at him. The torture he'd put me through after he got better would probably be completely and entirely agonizing. But the look on his face, I thought to myself, would probably more than make up for it.

Captain Unohana's verdict on the infection certainly could have been worse. _He'll get better, _she'd said, _but he's going to be out of action for about a month or so. The best advice I can give you is to just keep an eye on him and his fever. Keep him as cool as you can. His body should be able to fight it off on it's own. I'd heal him here and now, but infections such as this one are not only difficult to heal, but are also very risky. One can easily do permanent damage to any one of the organs. It's safest to just let his body handle it._

Of course, Captain Unohana had asked why I hadn't contacted her or one of her company earlier, when the wound had been small and uninfected, and simple to treat. I gave her a small, tired smile, the kind that Lord Byakuya said made me look twice my age, and said that my master was to proud for his own good, that I'd had to wait for him to black out before being able to go out and get help without fearing for my life. She'd smiled back at me, and with a laugh had said that that was so very much like Lord Byakuya.

And so now back to the immediate situation. Here I am, sitting in a elaborate, fluffy chair beside the even more elaborate bed in which my now semi-unconscious master lay, I myself in a rather odd state lying somewhere between alertness, hunger, exhaustion, and anxiety. Exhaustion, because I hadn't gotten a wink of sleep during the last forty eight hours. Why hadn't I stopped and slept? I'd been watching over my master. Hunger, because, well, I hadn't eaten in the last thirty hours, Why hadn't I simply gone and fetched someone to grab me a bite to eat? Because I'd been to busy watching over my master. Alertness and anxiety, because I'd been (A) busy worrying over my master, (B) watching over my master, and (C) because of the astronomical amounts of coffee tablets I'd forced down my throat within the last hour in order to keep myself from drooping off into my happy dream land. Did I mention that I was watching over my master? …Yeah, don't take this personally Lord Byakuya, but I'm just about to demand a pretty hefty raise. Hmmm… I wonder why?

Just beyond my masters bed was a window, and just beyond that window was a magnificently large peach blossom tree. A gentle breeze was blowing, silently whispering the pink petals off their branches and into the air, where they slowly spiraled down until they softly plopped onto the natural soft carpet of green grass. The breeze seemed to somehow crawl through the window and caress my hair, my face, taking me away like those peach blossom petals to somewhere new. My eyes began to droop, and the breeze continued to carry me farther and farther away from that spot, picking up more and more speed until it was no longer a breeze on a pleasant afternoon but instead the monstrous gale of a fantastic hurricane.


End file.
